The Pinetop Perkins Foundation Showcase brought the blues home to Clarksdale
Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale, Mississippi, June 19, 2026
The drive across Mississippi gives you time to think, which is either a blessing or a trap depending on the day. This one started as a blessing. From Tupelo, it is about two to two-and-a-half hours west, mostly a clean four-lane stretch on Highway 6 and Highway 278 before the road tightens into that two-lane pull toward the Delta. It is one of those drives where the state slowly changes its face in the windshield. The trees thin different. The sky opens different. By the time you start getting closer to Clarksdale, Mississippi, you can feel the blues country.
The reason for the trip was the Pinetop Perkins Foundation Workshop Blues Showcase, the closing-night event for the foundation’s 17th annual workshop week. The destination was Ground Zero Blues Club, one of those places where “venue” feels too clean a word. Ground Zero is part club, part gathering place, part living postcard.
The afternoon drive was peaceful at first. The closer I got to Clarksdale, though, the darker the sky became. Lightning started cracking on the horizon in those clean, bright lines that make you appreciate nature’s timing and question your own. By the time I pulled up to Hopson Commissary, the bottom fell out.
Not sprinkled. Not drizzled. Fell out.
The rain changed the plan quick. The workshops had wrapped, the gear had to be moved downtown to Ground Zero and everyone was still getting ready for the showcase like the storm was just another member of the crew. I met Liz Berntson to pick up credentials and we talked for a few moments about the week, how good it had been and how much had happened before the showcase even began. Next I headed on to Ground Zero, got settled into the room and decided the next best move was food.
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Catfish before the curtain
Ground Zero has a limited number of loft apartments upstairs, which is about as convenient as concert coverage gets. I got my things into the room, came back downstairs and looked over the menu. The choice for the night was the “Kingfish” catfish plate, and man, I was glad I went that route.
The catfish was some of the best fried fish I have had. Crisp without being punished, hot, clean, seasoned right and cooked with that balance that makes you stop talking for a few bites. The fries and coleslaw were good too, but they had to wait their turn. I could not put the fish down long enough to be fair to the sides.
By then the crowd had started to build. Workshop attendees, instructors, friends, families and blues fans kept finding their way in from the rain.
I grabbed a table just to stage left for our group. Carson was there after attending the electric guitar workshop during the week. Susan and Ricky Loden were there too, along with Stan and Rex.
Front porch lightning
The show opened with Libby Rae Watson and Bob Corritore performing an acoustic set, and that was the best possible way to begin. With Libby on Dobro and Bob on harp, it felt like front porch blues brought indoors to wait out the storm.
Then the instructors took the stage, and the night shifted from intimate to all-star real quick. This year’s workshop lineup was stacked enough that it almost sounded made up when you listed it out. Mr. Sipp and Brandon Miller on guitar. Billy Branch and Bob Corritore on harp. Wyly Bigger on keys. Lee Williams and Dionte Skinner sharing drums. Danielle Nicole and Heather Crosse on bass duties. Teeny Tucker on vocals. And then there was Bob Stroger, 95 years young, stepping onto that stage with the hat, the suit and enough smoothness to make time look embarrassed for trying.
Teeny Tucker was handing out chills like party favors. Her voice did not just sit on top of the band. It reached back into the room and took people with it. Mr. Sipp brought that Mississippi fire, the kind of guitar presence that makes you remember the blues is not museum glass. The harp players traded lines with bite and grace.
Students in the current
The next acoustic set brought Libby Rae back with Auggie Smith, Lamont and Kiersi Joli. The showcase was not only about legendary players proving why they are legendary. It was about the students stepping into the same current and showing what they had picked up in just a few days.
Each group had three-song sets, and the format kept the evening moving without making it feel rushed. Again and again, the combinations changed, but the feeling stayed steady. These musicians sounded like they had been sitting with the songs for months, not days.
The next group carried that lesson even farther because it showed how far people had traveled to be part of it. Enzo Capadona came from France. Viggo Bjerkhagen came from Sweden. The two guitarists showed off some serious six-string moves, and after the set Enzo told me this was his first time out of France. Think about that for a second. First time leaving France, and he lands in Clarksdale, Mississippi, playing blues at Ground Zero.
Enzo talked about what a great experience he had during the week, from the workshops to the jam sessions to the people and the area itself. Alongside Enzo and Viggo were Benjamin Luskin on harp, Aiden Galineau on piano, Javarii Sanders on drums and Christian O’Neal on bass.
Kiersi followed with a solo performance on Dobro, harp and voice. This was her fourth year attending the workshops, and she has now moved into an intern role, if I heard that correctly.
A choir asking for change
One of the biggest moments of the night came with the Pinetop Choir. The stage filled with musicians, and people gathered in front of it too.
They sang “Begging for Change”, written by Billy Branch, and the song carried that blues-gospel weight where plea, protest and praise all start sharing the same air. It was a great song choice for the night because it made the showcase feel larger than individual performances. It reached toward the reason the foundation exists in the first place.
The Pinetop Perkins Foundation has a mission that is simple and powerful. It supports young musicians at the beginning of their careers through the MasterClass Workshop Experience, and it helps elderly musicians in the twilight of their careers through the Pinetop Assistance League.
There were travelers from everywhere. Kansas City. St. Louis. Across Mississippi, even from the east side of Tupelo. And of course, from across the ocean.
The long roll call
There were several more sets as the night kept rolling, each one full of blues classics, good vibes and the kind of musicianship that made the schedule feel less like paperwork and more like a map of a family tree.
Brady Roseberry, Webb Schmidt, Abee Hudson, LJ Pearley, Michael Sedovic, Jonlan Posnik and Danielle Nicole were among the names in one group from the week’s workshops. Abee Hudson, only 10 years old, already had that mojo starting to show. Ten years old and stepping into the blues like the door was open for her. She is one to keep an eye on.
Then came Wesley Green, Bradley Griffin, Brandon Miller, Max Milowski, David Ciaffardini, Jared Sitton and Jackson Jakubik.
The Pearley Family followed Brandon’s group with another acoustic set, keeping that front-porch thread alive through the night. Then came the harp jam, and “Rock this House” by Jimmy Rogers turned into one of the night’s loudest grins. With that many harp players working the same fire.
The next band featured several members from St. Louis, including Haley Burke, Kiersi Joli, Gracey Williams, Brian Walker, Samara Pearley, Thomas Jamieson, Olivia Todd and Abee Hudson singing. They could have played all night and just kept rotating people on and off the stage.
Another acoustic set came next from Gary, Gary and Webb. Then the Rich House Band took over with Finn Hein and Carson Loden on guitar, JP, Jack Kenyon on harp, Dylan Yablonski, Sebastian Keen and Luke Jakubik. I was glad I got hold of a schedule because the night had become a beautiful blur of names, instruments and quick resets.
Next came an acoustic Gregg Allman cover from Jesse, Gary F. and Hayden. Then the final group of the night assembled with Andrew Sullivan, Auggie Smith, Hayden Everding, Wyly Bigger, Ian Harper and Mason Pittman.
Afterglow
So this has been a weekend of showcase’s, from young local talent at Tupelo’s hottest spot, Backline Music Hall, then west toward the mighty river to where a man supposedly sold his soul, and the birth of Blues and everything that followed!
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